How to Launch a Million-Dollar Business this Weekend w/Noah Kagan

[noahkagan]

No questions for @noahkagan, but just wanted to say hi.

Bought my first product from AppSumo Nov of 2011 and also was one of the first people to buy some "jerky" from you on LinkedIn when you wanted to validate the product.

I think we both also know Jeff Shaw....

Small world.

So cool. I love how the internet connects people.

 

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[noahkagan]

Hi Noah, thanks for taking the time to chat with us here! Pre Ordered your book on audible, stoked to have a listen.

I just watched the CNBC interview, curious where you get your investment advice from regarding asset allocation? Do you watch particular people/shows etc, advice from your network, a bit of everything?

Reading a lot (graham stephan is good), lost a lot of money "learning", talking with my my step-father, Ramit and wealth advisors that I've hired.

 

[chazwazzer]

Congrats on the product!

First is always customers. Where are you at with them and revenue?

I am at idea to execution stage. Basically I’m figuring out my execution. No product, no customer. I’ve got 4 hours per day to skill up so I thought learning react is a good move. @MJ DeMarco Fastlane book classifies my current status as turning a smelly fart into roses and the only solution is execution. The only thing I can think to do is learn react (skill up) so when the opportunity arises I can build the thing and release into wild.

Is a solo dev a worthless pursuit or you think I need to carve out some time to also build relationships with intent to possibly find a partner or workers?

 

[TryHardTriad]

@noahkagan Thanks for everything you do and for writing your book...a big fan for years now!

I have a $4-5 million dollar annual revenue business in the food product space that I started 4 years ago, but I am relatively young (30!) and am hungry to find that next level in business.

I am torn between doubling down on this business VS starting something 'better' in terms of leverage, scale, and opportunity.

What are your thoughts on business monogamy vs polygamy? When do you think it is right to move focus from one business to another?

 

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[mikecarlooch]

4- Someones revenue or whatever $100m number they put in titles is likely a lie and more important is profit.

shots fired

 

[mikecarlooch]

Great book @noahkagan .. and thanks for the $1 on Venmo lol

 

[Brass Pockets]

Hola FLF amigos

I’m Noah Kagan, the Chief Sumo (aka, CEO) at AppSumo ($80M+/year in revenue) the #1 software deals site online.

I also run a YouTube Channel with 1M+ subscribers helping inspire underdogs on their business journey.

Before AppSumo, I was employee #30 at Facebook (invented status updates, developed the Facebook ads platform and worked on the first version of Facebook's mobile app) & fired by Mark Zuckerberg.

Made my first million dollars at age 29 before I ever started a successful business by sleeping on friend’s couches and putting all my money into savings or the stock market.

My new book Million Dollar Weekend is dropping Jan 30/2024 sharing everything I’ve learned from starting eight $1M+ businesses (most in a single weekend).

Happy to answer any questions on entrepreneurship, launching a biz, marketing or running a company

Ps. Episode on Tim Ferriss just dropped if anyone wants to check it out!

Been reading this Noah, and page 43 hit me hard:

''...and my company was a commodity. I wanted to move up the value chain to a place where people can't live without my product.''

Now that's an eye opener for a business idea

Loving the book bud

 

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[The One]

I just went to my local coffee place - they know me well. Very well. As I asked for 10% off - I saw the biggest frown on their face. lol, that was interesting.

I’ve learnt that it was okay to fail and the only part I was afraid of was others interestingly.

 

[The One]

Hey @MJ DeMarco can I get 90% off goal sumo and FASTLANE forum membership?

 

[ZackerySprague]

Using Noah's method of asking for 10% off, I have made a friend at QT who gives me free drinks everytime I come in.

 

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[noahkagan]

Hey @MJ DeMarco can I get 90% off goal sumo and FASTLANE forum membership?

We've created monsters!

 

[noahkagan]

Been reading this Noah, and page 43 hit me hard:

''...and my company was a commodity. I wanted to move up the value chain to a place where people can't live without my product.''

Now that's an eye opener for a business idea

Loving the book bud

Thanks so much. Yea - so often we are solving nice problems vs critical problems.

A fun way to think about this - sort all your company bills in order of cancellation. Will show you which services you pay for are most valuable.

 

[noahkagan]

I am at idea to execution stage. Basically I’m figuring out my execution. No product, no customer. I’ve got 4 hours per day to skill up so I thought learning react is a good move. @MJ DeMarco Fastlane book classifies my current status as turning a smelly fart into roses and the only solution is execution. The only thing I can think to do is learn react (skill up) so when the opportunity arises I can build the thing and release into wild.

Is a solo dev a worthless pursuit or you think I need to carve out some time to also build relationships with intent to possibly find a partner or workers?

You don't need anyone else but yourself today.

A few ideas:
1- What have you gotten paid for in the past or what is your day job?
2- Look at your 150 contacts in your phone. Who's the most impressive or richest person in there? Call them today and just listen to their problems. Think you'll be surprised what you will find out.
3- No one wants code or react or javascript, they want their problems solved. Focus on that.

 

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[noahkagan]

@noahkagan Thanks for everything you do and for writing your book...a big fan for years now!

I have a $4-5 million dollar annual revenue business in the food product space that I started 4 years ago, but I am relatively young (30!) and am hungry to find that next level in business.

I am torn between doubling down on this business VS starting something 'better' in terms of leverage, scale, and opportunity.

What are your thoughts on business monogamy vs polygamy? When do you think it is right to move focus from one business to another?

Congrats on your success!!

I am 1000000% monogamous. The RICHEST people in the world DON'T diversify.

Copy success.

Keep doubling down until you can't double down anymore. There's ALWAYS more meat on the bone and the business is the one that works.

 

[noahkagan]

Hey Noah, pleasure to be acquainted with you, and thanks for taking the time to come on the fastlane and chat to people here.

You yourself seem to be quite active in the startup scene and AppSummo itself is (or was) quite a novel idea at the time. Much of your thinking is aligned with the lean startup philosophy — I say this as someone who purchased one of your courses long ago as part of the market research I was doing on products addressed to entrepreneurs at the time.

However, I feel that this kind of thinking often encourages beginners to pursue far-fetched ideas which require large capitalization or have a high chance for failure, or a low chance of making money consistently. Hence why most people who start businesses quit and don’t end up successful.

I’m not a big fan of this problem solving approach. Many problems aren’t worth solving economically speaking. Or they’re not possible, for whatever reason, for you specifically to solve.

There’s a handful of us on this forum who have made great money in basically “boring”, “crowded” market spaces. There’s a guy (talking about @Johnny boy ) in lawncare for example. I’m in the digital agency space. And so on.

And while I know these businesses are unlikely to produce billionaires, I see it as a safer path to wealth. You don’t need to innovate so much as you need to be better than the competition at doing what you do. My philosophy is literarily find a business that makes money, learn how they do what they do, copy what works, then look to improve things. No need to solve problems. No need to reinvent the wheel. Just join the party so to speak.

What’s your opinion on this — basically becoming better in a red/pink ocean, rather than seeking to open a blue ocean? I feel most (successful) pioneers suffer from surviorship bias. Would be curious to hear your thoughts!

Think there are many paths of success. I'm just sharing my variety.

Most important to me is finding a problem I personally care to be solved and make sure its at least a million dollar opportunity.

Starting in any industry for newer entrepreneurs and getting reps is essential as it will lead them to a great million dollar destination.

 

[Panos Daras]

@noahkagan I got your book and will try your process. If it works for a morron like me you have written a masterpiece.

 

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[noahkagan]

@noahkagan I got your book and will try your process. If it works for a morron like me you have written a masterpiece.

It 100% works. Follow it exactly. Report back - here to help.

 

[GoldenGlow]

Hola FLF amigos

I’m Noah Kagan, the Chief Sumo (aka, CEO) at AppSumo ($80M+/year in revenue) the #1 software deals site online.

I also run a YouTube Channel with 1M+ subscribers helping inspire underdogs on their business journey.

Before AppSumo, I was employee #30 at Facebook (invented status updates, developed the Facebook ads platform and worked on the first version of Facebook's mobile app) & fired by Mark Zuckerberg.

Made my first million dollars at age 29 before I ever started a successful business by sleeping on friend’s couches and putting all my money into savings or the stock market.

My new book Million Dollar Weekend is dropping Jan 30/2024 sharing everything I’ve learned from starting eight $1M+ businesses (most in a single weekend).

Happy to answer any questions on entrepreneurship, launching a biz, marketing or running a company

Ps. Episode on Tim Ferriss just dropped if anyone wants to check it out!

Become successful then start a self-improvement channel, or start a self-improvement channel whilst building your main business/ teaching yourself business strategy? Which is better?

I know that self-improvement is a pretty saturated market on YouTube, but there are multiple areas and styles of content to explore. You don't have to just be a cog in someone else's sales funnel with your channel's style and I think you can make videos whilst learning new skills; Which could even be the content of the video.

 

[Cojo]

Hey Noah, I've been listening to your audiobook and finding it very engaging. As a university student, I'm planning to help out some classmates with their assignments, although the pay won't be significant, it's a start.

I'm also a web developer, I've been debating whether to offer services or develop a product. I've tried offering my services to my network before, but with little success.

Living in a less developed country, websites aren't valued much and the economy is very bad so I have been thinking of creating a product. Any suggestions on how to approach this?

 

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[Mindsetmary]

Hola FLF amigos

I’m Noah Kagan, the Chief Sumo (aka, CEO) at AppSumo ($80M+/year in revenue) the #1 software deals site online.

I also run a YouTube Channel with 1M+ subscribers helping inspire underdogs on their business journey.

Before AppSumo, I was employee #30 at Facebook (invented status updates, developed the Facebook ads platform and worked on the first version of Facebook's mobile app) & fired by Mark Zuckerberg.

Made my first million dollars at age 29 before I ever started a successful business by sleeping on friend’s couches and putting all my money into savings or the stock market.

My new book Million Dollar Weekend is dropping Jan 30/2024 sharing everything I’ve learned from starting eight $1M+ businesses (most in a single weekend).

Happy to answer any questions on entrepreneurship, launching a biz, marketing or running a company

Ps. Episode on Tim Ferriss just dropped if anyone wants to check it out!

Hi Noah,

Wow, I just learned about you last week when I watched your interview with Ali Abdaal on his YouTube channel! It's so nice to see you here in FLF, I'm loving the signs and synchronicities! As someone new to entrepreneurship, I certainly appreciate all the amazing work that you're doing, the quality content that you're putting out, and how you're showing up for us in this forum! Much love, Mary

 

[Xeon]

For those who got the book, is this book mainly for tech guys and coders looking to start their tech-related business idea? Or is it suitable for non-tech folks?

 

[bambz]

Hi @noahkagan

I've read the book. Awesome!

Well, few days ago, my friend who owns small company in some b2b branch told me about his problems and frustrating while using software in work. He has few problems I am able to solve (I'm software dev as well). My solution could reduce cost and time.

In FB group of this b2b niche there are almost 100k users.

How could I presell my solution if I even haven't started coding it ?
Should I push some post with question about that solution in this group? Or start private conversation?
Maybe should I create landing with presale?


The worst thing is that in my opinion people in my country aren't willing to spend money for presale ... (Poland).

 

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[Andy Black]

How could I presell my solution if I even haven't started coding it ?
Should I push some post with question about that solution in this group? Or start private conversation?
Maybe should I create landing with presale?

You could post in the group, in a conversational and non-sales way.

Off the top of my head:

"Hi guys. A friend had XYZ problem that i solved doing ABC. Is this a big problem in this industry and how do you guys solve it?"

 

[bambz]

You could post in the group, in a conversational and non-sales way.

Off the top of my head:

"Hi guys. A friend had XYZ problem that i solved doing ABC. Is this a big problem in this industry and how do you guys solve it?"

@Andy Black
I did it. Some people wrote priv to me and some liked the post.

What about validation this by selling the idea to the first three people as Noah said?
I know there are a lot of potential customers (100k), I know they have problem I can resolve but how can I get first few payments ? ;p

Should I create landing with app description and presale with discount?

I need 1-2 weeks to create very basic version of the MVP, but Noah recommends to get at first the three payments to do real validation.

 

[Andy Black]

@Andy Black
I did it. Some people wrote priv to me and some liked the post.

What about validation this by selling the idea to the first three people as Noah said?
I know there are a lot of potential customers (100k), I know they have problem I can resolve but how can I get first few payments ? ;p

Should I create landing with app description and presale with discount?

I need 1-2 weeks to create very basic version of the MVP, but Noah recommends to get at first the three payments to do real validation.

No need to create a landing page. Get into DM with people and get to Zoom where appropriate. Find out more about them, the problem, and if you can help. See if they'll pay to have the problem served.

 

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[bambz]

No need to create a landing page. Get into DM with people and get to Zoom where appropriate. Find out more about them, the problem, and if you can help. See if they'll pay to have the problem served.

Ok, I agree, but how can I see if they will pay to have the problem served before I create the solution?

 

[Andy Black]

Ok, I agree, but how can I see if they will pay to have the problem served before I create the solution?

Ask them?

Let me rewrite my previous comment:

Get into conversation with people. Find out more about them, the problem, and if you can help. Ask if they'll pay to have the problem served.

 

[bambz]

Ask them?

Let me rewrite my previous comment:

Get into conversation with people. Find out more about them, the problem, and if you can help. Ask if they'll pay to have the problem served.

Is there no difference between a promise that someone will pay and a real payment? I often use the first option and people answer me "yeah, this price / month is okay for me" .. but Noah said about real payment.

It could be tricky in my country ;p

 

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[Andy Black]

Is there no difference between a promise that someone will pay and a real payment?

Of course there is. The money is in their account vs the money is in your account.

I often use the first option and people answer me "yeah, this price / month is okay for me"

That's cool. Just bear in mind they're not a customer or client till the money is in your account. Until then the money is in their account and they're still a prospect.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

For those who got the book, is this book mainly for tech guys and coders looking to start their tech-related business idea? Or is it suitable for non-tech folks?

No, a lot of his examples are physical products, like beef jerky was one of his test pilots.